The Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs both offer benefits to individuals with disabilities that prevent them from working. The process for obtaining these benefits can be complicated and often takes a bit of time, which is...
It's not uncommon for a parent to tell a child to buck up and walk it off. The advice usually comes after a fall from a bike or some other sort of injury that's just the result of living. The older we get, though, the more likely it is that life and time will begin to...
Recognition that mental conditions can be just as disabling as physical impairments is something that has been a matter of law for decades. Back in 1985, Congress passed the Mental Illness Bill of Rights Act, requiring states to provide protection and advocacy...
There are many forms of disability. Some are quite visible, others less so. Many exist in something of a shadow world. Medical science hasn't been able to penetrate the causes of so many of these conditions. Efforts to find treatments prove fruitless and the general...
The Social Security Administration took a lot of heat in 2013. There were a lot of headlines about how the recent recession appears to have driven a big increase in the number of people seeking Social Security disability insurance benefits. The concern there is that...
Years of civil war in Somalia have brought a lot of refugees from that East African nation to the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, California is one state that has attracted significant numbers. The largest clustering, however, has occurred in...
In the first part of this post, we explained how neuropathy is, in layperson’s terms, a form of nerve damage. As we discussed, it is a common condition, yet one that is not very well understood. The consequences of untreated neuropathy can be severe. They can...
Some of the leading causes of disability are well known. Chronic back pain, for example, is a condition that many people would immediately identify as potentially disabling. Research is also making better known just how common it is for depression to become so severe...
Dust may still be settling in the wake of a gas explosion at the Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County in Northern California. Officials say an oven in the jail blew up and left 10 inmates injured. One of them suffered serious head injuries. None of the injuries suffered...
Last week, we took note of the fact that a particularly virulent form of meningitis bacteria had cropped up at the University of California at Santa Barbara. At that time, four students had come down with the bug. Three are now reported to have recovered, but the...
